One of my favorite meals on Earth is P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef. I am drooling just thinking about it. In fact, I feel a date night coming on. But until then, I found a copycat recipe on Once a Month Meals that made my heart sing! And, bonus points that it is Paleo and a much cleaner recipe than many of the others that call for brown sugar.

While visiting my bestie, Kelley, we whipped this up together. It was a perfect dish to enjoy, especially for her daughter who has food sensitivities. I brought my Instant Pot along with me on my visit, so we had twins! What fun! And, yes, it did make me want to buy another.

Check out the recipe here for the ingredients and directions for this dish.

First, we sliced the flank steak against the grain.

Next, we tossed it in arrowroot flour.

We mixed up the ingredients which would make up the sauce.

What is a dish if it doesn’t include minced garlic?

Kelley grated the carrots and chopped the green onions.

All of it goes in the Pot!

Meat goes in last before putting on the lid.

Manual High pressure for 35 minutes!

Meanwhile, a google search led me to the perfect white rice recipe on Dad Cooks Dinner.

Look at our twins! Aren’t they cute?

The rice cooked perfectly for the dish. We purposely didn’t rinse it so it would be sticky.

Here is the finished product! Two moms, one dad, and two teens all gave it two thumbs up!

If you try this recipe, let me know in the comments how it turns out!

xo Jaime

This post contains some affiliate links for products I love. All opinions are 100% my own. If you purchase using these links, you are helping to support this blog! Thank you for that!

Where, oh where, is the sun? And why is it so cold my face hurts? I don’t do well with winter. I really have to push through each and every day, struggling to keep a grip on my spirits. I truly believe seasonal depression is a very real thing, and it affects me every January and February like clockwork. One thing I do a lot of during the winter months is make hearty soups. A warm bowl of soup is kind of like a blanket to the soul. Don’t you agree?

My Instant Pot has been incredible for making soups, so I whipped up some chicken noodle soup and wanted to share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

3 chopped celery stalks

1 cup carrot coins (or chopped carrots)

1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning

Salt and Pepper

3 (32 oz) box chicken broth (or homemade broth)

6 oz Extra Wide Egg Noodles

Directions:
Sauté minced garlic, diced onions, celery and carrots with heavy seasonings (I used S and P, Italian seasoning, and onion powder) in pot using olive oil.

Add two chicken breasts on top. Pour enough broth in to just cover chicken breast.

Turn Instant Pot on Manual High Pressure for 7 minutes with 3 min NPR before releasing pressure.

Remove chicken breast and place on cutting board. Shred and dice. (You can shred while the noodles are cooking!)

Turn pot to Sauté and adjust to More. Add another 32oz of broth to pot. Let it come to a boil. When it is boiling, add half a bag of egg noodles.

When noodles are al dente’, turn off your pot and add chicken. Stir well.

At this point, you may want to add more seasoning to taste and additional broth or water if you like a brothier soup. I do, so I added another 32 oz of chicken stock. In total, I probably used 3 boxes of broth. (I made my own previously so I wasn’t really measuring.) Enjoy!

(This post may contain affiliate links which benefit this blog if you click and purchase! This helps me keep my blog going. I only ever link items that I truly believe in!)

Another post from my lovely neighbor, Sharon!

(Post and photography contributed by Sharon Harrod)

A Tennessee snow day means a cooking day for me! This recipe is my take on BAKED EGGS from “The Chew.” It starts with a delicious tomato basil garlic sauce in the bottom of a ramekin, an egg in the middle, and topped with Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. The tomatoes in these baked eggs add many vitamins and beta carotene which act as antioxidants, so this recipe could also be a nice addition to your morning menu. This breakfast offers a yummy change from your tired scrambled eggs!

Baked Eggs (Adapted from The Chew)

Ingredients
1 28 ounce can of organic crushed, diced, or whole tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons roasted garlic

2 tablespoons fresh or dried basil

6 eggs

1 Cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

Directions:
First, pour a 28 ounce can of crushed, diced or whole tomatoes into your Vitamix or whatever pureeing device you own. I use organic tomatoes.

Next, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of fresh or dried basil. The Chew recipe called for fresh basil and raw garlic however I believe that the roasted garlic adds another level of flavor. I always roast a couple of heads of garlic and then squeeze the garlic out. I keep them in a container in my refrigerator to use as needed. I also had a massive amount of Basil in my garden this year so I dried it and then crumble it into my recipes throughout the winter. Blend thoroughly.

Pour the sauce into medium sized ramekins or small baking dishes. Crack an egg over the sauce. Sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese over the egg and salt and pepper.

Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until the egg center is to your liking.

Top with fresh basil and serve.

Enjoy every cheesy bite!

I’m on Day 5 of the 21 Day Fix and my sweet tooth is still recovering from the holidays. I can’t abandon it all together! My husband and I sit together and look longingly into our kitchen each night wishing for bowls of brownies and ice cream. If weight gain was not a consequence, there is no question we would eat ourselves into an oblivion of sugary treats.

But, alas, we are trying to be healthy. I’ve been wanting to make up some of my own recipes for the Instant Pot, so I pursued the web for some apple crisp recipes. They were all full of brown sugar and butter, so I made my own adjustments and came up with something very tasty! I made this gluten-free, but I feel sure you could use whole wheat or regular flour and it would be fine. If you omit the flour altogether you lose the “topping” so I’d keep it in if that is important to you.

The hubby said the only thing missing was ice cream! Maybe another time, honey!

Here is a very bad cell phone photo – I didn’t have my pro camera out because this was supposed to just be an experiment!

Ingredients:
2 Apples – (I left on the peel, but make that your own preference)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Topping:
2 teaspoon melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 tablespoon gluten free flour

8-10 crushed pecans

Directions:

Core and chop apples.

Toss apples, cinnamon, and nutmeg in stainless steel bowl that can fit in IP (or any kind of bowl that can withstand the IP) until well coated.
Mix all ingredients for topping in a separate bowl. Spoon over apples.
Place bowl on trivet inside instant pot. Add one cup water to the bottom of the pot.
Cook Manual HP 8 minutes with an 8 minute NP. Release remaining pressure.

If you prefer a crunchier topping, broil 4-5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

21 Day Fix container counts per serving:
1 Purple, 1/2 yellow, 2 teaspoons

Here is a video tutorial!

The holidays have finally come to an end! Shewwwww! Don’t get me wrong, I loved the last month and a half. I put a special focus on reconnecting with more old friends than I could count. It was just what my soul needed. And, my kids had a blast! My six year old son exudes the holiday spirit more than anyone I’ve ever met. Both of my sons were full speed ahead soaking in every bit of Christmas joy they could muster. But, all of that – woah. It is a LOT. I am whipped. I’m ready to get back to routines and healthy eating. While I did manage to get through the holidays without gaining any substantial amount of weight, my jeans are starting to get a little tight from the endless amounts of party foods I shoved in my mouth over the last couple weeks. Time to make it stop!

I kicked off a Beachbody fitness challenge in my private accountability group on Facebook, and I have around 15 women who are committed to finishing a program this month. The majority, myself included, are doing the 21 Day Fix. I’ve done the Fix three times, but it’s been nearly a year since I last completed a round. It seemed like the perfect program to kick the year off for me. Today I spent my time food prepping for the week. I find that if I have some meals ready to grab and reheat, I’m much more apt to stay on track. I’ve been scouring the internet for clean eating recipes for my Instant Pot and stumbled around two that were perfect for this week.

The first was from Nom Nom Paleo – Pork and Napa Cabbage Soup. Check out the recipe here!

The second was from This Old Gal – Salsa Lime Chicken and Rice. Check out the recipe here!

I made a video of the prep and even included my “fail” when I tried to do a pot-in-pot preparation of the chicken and rice. I should have known better not to try to swap out brown rice for white without adjusting the cooking time. My rice was undercooked and required another 8 minutes of cooking time. Both dishes turned out fantastic, and I’m looking forward to enjoying them throughout the week.

Here is the video:

I also figured out container counts for these meals:

Pork and Napa Cabbage Soup – I made the serving size 1.5 green. Container counts would be: 1.5 green, .5 red, .5 (if that) yellow, and 1 teaspoon as I didn’t drain the pork fat. I’m not scared of fat! Fat makes you feel satisfied.

Salsa Lime Chicken and Rice – 1 Red, 1 Yellow, and 1 Green if you add the arugula like I did.

Happy prepping!

xo Jaime

You guys really inspired me after your response to my last meal prep post on social media! Apparently, there is demand for this type of content so I happily made another post.
Here is a link to a video I created documenting the whole process:

Here are the instructions for cooking:

Hardboiled Eggs (using This Old Gal recipe)

1 cup water, eggs in steamer basket 2 min High Pressure, NPR, and Done!

Whole Chicken (modified from Healing Gourmet recipe)

Remove gizzards and season well on both sides.

Using Sauté setting on Normal, place breast side down and brown in 1 TBPN coconut oil for 6 minutes.

Flip chicken and add one cup chicken stock to the pot.

Manual High Pressure for 25 min (although I might do 24 min next time) with NPR

(Reserve your broth!)

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Pour 1 cup broth from your chicken into pot.

Add Potatoes in your mesh steam pot (or on trivet) inside pot.

Manual High Pressure 10 min with NPR
Cooked Carrots

1 cup broth from your chicken

1 bag of carrots in your mesh steam pot

3 min Manual High Pressure with QR

Divide into your Tupperware using your color-coded portion containers!

1 Red (chicken), 1 Yellow (potato), 1 Green (carrots) and 1 teaspoon if you add butter or oil to your potato

I used the hard boiled egg for a snack. One egg is half a Red and I will eat it with a piece of fruit which is one Purple!

What’s in your pot??

As always, hit me up if you want to know more about 21 Day Fix! Let’s get in shape together!

xo Jaime

My Instant Pot is my newest obsession. It is a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, a yogurt maker and more. It cuts a lot of time off prepping meals. I put this post together for all you of you fellow dieters out there who meal prep (and need to balance out all those delicious Instant Pot cheesecakes)! Easy meal prep in the Instant Pot that actually tastes good! 
This makes four meals and when portioned out to the 21 Day Fix meal plan, each meal equals the following: 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Green and one orange if you use the barbecue sauce.

Brown Basmati Rice – 1 cup brown basmati rice, 1 1/4 cup water, teaspoon butter, big pinch of sea salt

Manual, High Pressure, 22 min with QR

Chicken Breast – 2 cup chicken stock, three chicken breast with seasonings of your choice, put the chicken in the broth, Manual High Pressure 12 min with QR

Fresh Steamed Broccoli – Use chicken stock that’s in the pot from the chicken, 3 cups of fresh broccoli in your steam basket, Manual Low Pressure 0 min, QR

**I still haven’t completely mastered steaming fresh broccoli. My first batch overcooked so I made cream of broccoli soup with it. My second batch was better (user error first time around) but it was still a little more done than I’d prefer. Any suggestions welcome! ***

Here is a photo of my cream of broccoli soup that ended up being a happy mistake! I just used two cups milk, two cups chicken stock, a couple tablespoons flour and a tablespoon butter. Seasoned it up well and mixed it in my Vitamix. Added some cheddar cheese at my husband’s request! Not clean eating, but great for a winter’s evening!

Back to the meal prep:

Portion out into four containers, brush on some BBQ sauce if you want. There you go… four healthy meals in your fridge to help you stick to your diet goals!

I also made a video on my Modern Day Fox YouTube channel. Check it out here:

Happy prepping in your IP!

Have prepping ideas? Share them in the comments!

xo Jaime

This post is contributed by Sharon Harrod:

I’m a spicy girl who loves spicy creations! I was never really a meatloaf person until I created this gem. Now, it’s a favorite! And, a leftover sandwich the next day is awesome on toast with tomato, red onion, arugula and mayo. All the veggies in the recipe and oatmeal as added fiber is a big bonus! This is not your plain ol’ meatloaf and it does require some extra steps. But, I promise this is well worth the effort.

(Photography courtesy of Sharon Harrod)

Chipotle Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 pound chopped sirloin ( I grind my own in the Cuisinart, but you just buy ground sirloin)
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
3 baby bells
1/2 grated red onion
1 clove garlic grated
One roasted poblano pepper
2 tablespoons banana peppers
1/4 cup roasted butternut squash
Three eggs
1 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Taco blend cheese
1  24-ounce bottle of ketchup
1 small can chipotle sauce or 3 Chipotle peppers pureed

Directions:

First, let me say my Cuisinart is one of my three favorite kitchen tools. If you don’t have one, a little mini chopper or chopping finely by hand works just as well. It just takes longer!

Step 1
Roast a poblano pepper and a butternut squash in the oven at 400 degrees with olive oil and salt until softened.

Step 2
Cut the sirloin steak  in large 1 inch chunks and process in small batches in the Cuisinart. Do a course chop so the meatloaf will have more of a steak texture and flavor.  Place the chopped sirloin in a large mixing bowl.

Step 3
Individually mince the carrot, celery,  and baby bells in the same manner.  Place them in the bowl along with the sirloin.

Step 4
Using a microplane grater, grate the red onion and garlic. Place in the bowl with the other ingredients.

Step 5
Peel the skin from both the roasted poblano and the roasted butternut squash . Chop the pablano and scoop out 1/4 cup of squash. Place them in the bowl alongside the other ingredients.

Step 6
Mix meat and vegetable ingredients together.

Step 7
In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, oatmeal, the two cheeses and salt and pepper.

Step 8
Mix the egg and meat mixture together.

Step 9
Mix the bottle of ketchup together with the chipotle sauce.

Step 10
Place the meatloaf in a loaf pan and cover with 1/2 of the Chipotle ketchup ( I save the remaining Chipotle ketchup to use for many other things, so I always have a bottle in my refrigerator. It’s delish!)

Step 11
Bake @ 400° for 45 minutes let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting into slices.

You can serve the remaining butternut squash as a side dish along with the meatloaf.

Let me know how yours turns out in the comments! Enjoy!

–Sharon

My neighbor, Sharon, is a wonderful friend and a wonderful cook. She is also a great conversationalist, creative, and has a very interesting life. Basically, she is made to write a blog. And it’s on her bucket list to have one someday soon! Until then, she has agreed to contribute to mine. Lucky me! Starting today, you will see regularly featured “From Sharon’s Kitchen” posts with my neighbor’s tasty creations.

In Sharon’s words:

Hello, Modern Day Fox readers! My name is Sharon and I’m so happy to be able to share my love for cooking with all of you. I’m very passionate about food, especially gluten-free creations. Since the weather has taken a turn for the cold this week, I was longing for a warm cup of soup. I thought it would be great to kick off my first featured post with my Roasted Red Pepper Soup.

I wait every year for red bell peppers to go on sale so that I can make batches of this delicious soup. I had it for the first time many years ago on Thanksgiving Day and it has become a favorite amongst all my friends and family. I hope you love it as much as we do!

ROASTED RED PEPPER SOUP

Ingredients:

6 red bell peppers 

2 Bartlett pears

2 shallots

4 carrots 

1 clove garlic 

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon 

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 box organic chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 jar roasted red peppers (save for last)

Directions:

Chop shallot and garlic into small minced pieces and place in a Dutch oven with olive oil. Cook until translucent.

Chop all vegetables and pears into big chunks. Place in Dutch oven along with chicken broth, salt and pepper, crushed red pepper and 1 tablespoon tarragon. Cook on medium-high heat until veggies are tender. Remove from heat and puree with immersion blender or vitamix. If you have neither, you can do small batches in regular blender.

Remove the skins from the jarred roasted red peppers and cut into tiny chunks. Mix into the soup along with a second tablespoon of tarragon. ENJOY!

Oh, and by the way, I served this with my famous newly created Gluten Free Cornbread. To die for! Recipe coming soon.

See you next time! 

— Sharon

I admit it. I have a bit of a girl crush on PaleOMG, blogger Juli Bauer. She is that girl you just want to hang out with because not only is she creative and quirky, she is also athletic, a great cook and not afraid to drop the F bomb at any given moment. Her engaging blog has definitely inspired me to pursue my own! She expanded from mainly Paleo recipes into celebrating many other topics about which she is passionate. And, you know I love that!

In addition to her booming blog, a fun social media presence, and a brand new podcast, Juli also has three cookbooks under her belt. And, I happily own all three! One of her recipes, Buffalo Chicken Casserole, was a lifesaver when I was eating Paleo and has become a staple in my house. (On and off, I will eat Paleo throughout the year. We can talk about that another time!) This recipe, along with many other delicious dishes, can be found in her latest cookbook, Juli Bauer’s Paleo Cookbook. I made it last weekend and my husband said it should stay in rotation. Always a good sign! Fair warning, the buffalo sauce does make it pretty spicy. If you are sensitive to spice, I recommend starting with a half cup the first time you make it and then adding additional hot sauce in your single serving.  I have found that 3/4 cup of hot sauce is the right temperature for yours truly. I served this dish with some sprigs of cilantro and a drizzle of Greek Yogurt Dill Ranch Dressing. Delicious!

Here is the ingredient list as shown on Juli’s PaleOMG website:

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Ingredients:

1 medium spaghetti squash (about 21⁄2 pounds)

4 tablespoons butter, ghee, or coconut oil, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium carrot, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1⁄2 medium yellow onion, minced

1 small red bell pepper, diced

1 pound ground chicken

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup hot sauce

1⁄4 cup Super Simple Mayonnaise (page 274 in Juli’s book) or store bought mayo

3 large eggs, whisked chopped scallions, for garnish

sliced avocado, for garnish

Click here to get the instructions for this recipe from Juli’s blog!

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I tried to take some photos for you off my iPhone. This dish is not very photogenic so I didn’t bother with trying in vain to use my professional camera. The photos are crappy, but all you need to know is it tastes better than it looks! Juli’s photos in the cookbook and on the link back to this recipe on her blog are absolutely gorgeous, however. The photography work was another reason I bought the book.

Let me know if you give this recipe a try! And, more importantly,check out PaleOMG! Even if you don’t eat Paleo, you will make a new friend out of Juli Bauer!

xo Jaime